


shelter from the storm

by Indigotuesday



Series: nerds hugging [2]
Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, Fluff, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-22
Updated: 2014-04-22
Packaged: 2018-01-20 11:18:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1508543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Indigotuesday/pseuds/Indigotuesday
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Courfeyrac is having a no good very bad day. Luckily, he has a science nerd to hug him warm after he's caught in the rain and let him play with a microscope.</p>
            </blockquote>





	shelter from the storm

It’s been raining for a million years and Courfeyrac can feel cold in his bones, he’s not kidding. His bright yellow galoshes and slicker are barely even helping because the rain is attacking him from every direction. Some might have just gone up the leg of his pants and there is water dripping out of his hair and trickling down his spine. 

He’s just gotten off work, and rain always makes people cranky so like four people had yelled at him for stupid things. Not even his charming smile, perhaps a little lackluster by the end of his shift, had appeased them. He’d stayed late to remake this woman’s coffee while she watched him, hawk eyed, over the counter because his first attempt had been too “soy-y” and now he absolutely has to catch both his buses or he’ll be abysmally late for class, rather than just horribly so.

There’s this terrible thing where he gets off work and goes to catch the 22 which, he swears, is the most unreliable bus route in the whole entire city. So he’ll catch the 22 about seven minutes late, as always, and get off just in time to book it down the block, wave to the driver of the 7 just as they’re about to drive away, and climb on to the bus trying to disguise the fact that he’s panting. It happens pretty much every day. 

Today, because someone is looking down on Courfeyrac and has decided that he doesn’t deserve nice things, the 22 pulls up to the intersection just in time for him to watch out the window as the 7 pulls away from his stop. He will fully admit to a tendency towards the dramatic, but still feels the impulse to sink to the ground and shake his fists at the sky is totally justified. The only thing that stops him is how grimy the floor of the bus is - these pant are new, and possibly still salvageable even though they’re soaking. 

He gets off the bus, though there’s really no point because at this point he’d reach campus faster walking and even then his class would be practically over. Kicking his feet dejectedly against the pavement, he walks down the street without even bothering to open his umbrella, because there’s really no way he can get wetter at this point. When he looks around he realises that he only vaguely recognises where he is, but he’s pretty sure that Combeferre runs lab work for his internship in that office building.

Suddenly, seeing Combeferre seems like the best possible idea in the entire world. Lovely Combeferre, who will nag him for letting himself get so wet but might have the resources to make him tea. 

He gets past the security guard, because even looking like a drowned rat he can convince people that he belongs anywhere - it’s his main talent. The receptionist points him towards the lab that Combeferre is working in, and thank god Courfeyrac remembered the name of the weird med tech company. He takes a moment to hope that Combeferre is on shift, then opens the door to the lab.

Combeferre is facing the other direction, bending to look into a microscope and wearing a lab coat. Courfeyrac thinks he constantly strives to be a giant cliche of a productive med student. Turning to make a note with the pencil that had been tucked behind his ear, Combeferre spots Courfeyrac standing in the doorway, dripping on the pristine tile floor. 

“Courfeyrac,” he says, and he sounds pleasantly surprised, which is better than Courfeyrac hoped. “You’re soaking.” 

He stands and turns to look at Courfeyrac and he’s so neat and perfect, with his stupid gelled hair that makes him look like an adorable cartoon nerd and the stupid lab coat that’s too big in the shoulders so he also looks a little like a kid playing dress up. He’s incredibly professional and clean, matching his professional, clean lab perfectly. Courfeyrac tries frantically to remember if he wiped his feet on the way in - he thinks he didn’t. 

Combeferre closes the space between them and pulls Courfeyrac into his arms. Courfeyrac’s so surprised that he lets out a little squeak, not that he’d ever admit it. He kind of just gives in when Combeferre tugs, planting his face in the much taller boy’s collar bone. Combeferre buries his hand in the damp curls at the nape of Courfeyrac’s neck, cradling his head with his stupidly huge hand. His other arm is at the base of Courfeyrac’s back and their upper bodies are kind of awkwardly pressed together while their feet are still far apart. A minute ago it felt like Courfeyrac would never be warm again, but the heat from Combeferre’s skin saturates his own like he’s sitting by a fireplace. 

“I’m happy to see you,” Combeferre says, stepping back but keeping his arm over his shoulder. 

“You too, god, so much,” Courfeyrac replies.

“Do you want to make hot chocolate with a bunsen burner and let you look at stuff through a super powerful microscope while you tell me why you’re such a mess?”

“You know it. You’ll never believe this lady, she orders this stupid trendy coffee and then she’s all ‘you made it too soy-y, I can taste the soy.’ well then why didn’t you order it with milk?”

**Author's Note:**

> find me on tumblr for more gratuitous hugging fic. I try to post a terribly fluffy ficlet daily and happily take prompts - indigotuesday.tumblr.com


End file.
